Capitalism or Common-Sense Common Ownership

ABOLISH WAGE SLAVERY

 “If class warfare is being waged in America, my class is clearly winning.” Multi-billionaire Warren Buffett

There has been much talk about class warfare, mostly from right-wingers accusing socialists of fomenting unfair and divisive hate against the wealthy. Class war must exist so long as society is divided into classes with opposing interests. Capitalism, by its very nature, creates that division. Class war must end as soon as society is no longer divided into hostile classes. Socialism, by its very nature, creates a classless society. Socialists don’t "preach" class war—they describe the class war that already exists. Class struggle is both the reality of everyday life under capitalism and the way forward to a society based on human needs and not profit. They call upon the working class to help bring about the change from a society which must be divided into classes to a society where no such division is possible. They urge that universal brotherhood, which can be only a dream under capitalism, be transformed into a reality under socialism.

Jack London in his novel ‘The Iron Heel’ explains it:

"And, believe me, we foment no hatred. We say that the class struggle is a law of social development. We are not responsible for it. We do not make the class struggle. We merely explain it, as Newton explained gravitation. We explain the nature of the conflict of interest that produces the class struggle." 

London wishes to present a vision beyond class conflict;

“Let us not destroy those wonderful machines that produce efficiently and cheaply. Let us control them. Let us profit by their efficiency and cheapness. Let us run them for ourselves. That, gentlemen, is socialism...”

Class, class struggle and class war are terms usually deliberately avoided in the media. There is a good reason for this: The ruling elite don’t want working people to see the massive division in wealth between the 1% and the rest of us. They especially don’t want us drawing the political conclusion that working people, the poor and young people have common interests that are opposed to those of the richest 1%. There is a class war going on and being waged against those that have nothing in comparison to those that have everything the best homes, food, medication, education and the material wealth at the expense of the majority, and further more they intend to hold on to it, and we the majority will pay a very high price unless we fight back, we must organise we must come together like never before. We live in a class society. We can't wish that away or pretend like small children that if we can't see it that it can't affect us. Class politics remains the key to uniting the overwhelming majority of the world's people in the fight for a new and classless society.

Today’s robber barons know that the media matters and have effectively bought-off the popular opinion makers. Stylishly groomed corporate executives and financiers, who are morally no better than sneak thieves, have become celebrities. They are flattered on reality TV shows, unquestioningly praised on business programmes and voyeuristically acclaimed in the celebrity columns. The media knows better than bite the hand that feeds it. But most people can recognise class struggle for, on the one side, there are the ceaseless reports of high-levels of unemployment  and mounting unpaid bills and, on the other, in a skyrocketing stock market with sky-high bonuses paid to financial wheeler-dealers. Capital is confident that it appears to have won the class war while many socialists have lost confidence in their utopian hopes. People have lost their belief that change is possible. We need to rebuild belief in the possibility of a better world. Today, when capitalism, the free market, and private enterprise are being hailed as triumphant in the world, it is a good time to rekindle the idea of socialism.

There are two classes in capitalist society— property-owners and propertyless workers. The capitalists, own the banks, the factories, and the corporations and their profits derive from work that is done by workers. Workers, on the other hand, can only survive by selling their ability to work to the owners. The owners of capital have a single goal: increasing profit. Since profits are based on the value that workers add in production above and beyond the cost of production, including wages, owners try to keep the cost of labour as low as possible. Workers, on the other hand, need to earn enough for food, clothing, shelter, education and other necessities. Workers’ and owners’ interests are diametrically opposed. This is the basis for class struggle. A form of class struggle is strikes and other labour struggles. In those fights, workers join together based on common interests as workers to win back some of the surplus value they have produced. But class struggle is constant, even in periods of relative labour “peace.” Even when workers are not struggling to increase their share of the wealth they produce, the owners are trying to increase their share by raising productivity or cutting benefits. Workers seek safety on the job and better rewards for their work; owners seek the maximum amount of cost-cutting and expropriation without completely breaking the mental and physical wellness of workers. Awareness of class interests and looking for ways to advance these interests in the class struggle is called class consciousness. For the working class, class consciousness means understanding the need for unity and solidarity of the whole class against the tiny class of employers.

Socialism means production for need, whereas capitalism is production for profit. Capitalism increases productivity, but this just means more exploitation for higher profit. Socialism is self-management of the workplace and society. People’s conscious direction of their own lives, which the free market only pretends to offer. A revolution means an awakening of the people, rising to their feet from their knees so that they can become true human beings. They will feel that the world truly belongs to them. Under capitalism people are not free at all as they compete with each other in an animal struggle for existence. It is an inhuman and immoral. Socialism is based on respect and solidarity. The division of society into order-givers and order-takers must be ended. Socialism must start as it means to carry on: means and ends are interrelated. We can’t use authoritarian methods to create a society without bosses. Politics is too important to be left to politicians. We cannot wait for saviours to come and liberate us. The faith in the vanguard party must be abandoned.

Class inequality increases over time because employers pay workers less than the value of what they produce. However, this exploitative relationship is hidden by the lies that a) employers create jobs and b) workers are lucky to have them. In fact, labour creates all wealth, and capitalists are lucky that workers keep producing it for them. Lies are used to divide workers. Only employers benefit when workers are divided. The purpose of pitting workers against one another is to prevent unity. "Foolish and vain is the working man who makes the colour of his skin the stepping stone to his imaginary superiority," Eugene Debs decried. We must remember what it takes to win – fighting as a class. Class struggle is built into the fabric of all societies that have classes. Our challenge is to rebuild a movement that can end the class-division of society and all the oppressions that go with it. The employing class are organised and fighting their own offensive against the working class, as they always have been. Itʼs time to organise ourselves.